Amid Trump Push to Arm More Teachers, Students Injured After 'Trained' Educator's Gun Goes Off in Classroom

Fermin Gonzales IV, 17, was one of three students injured when a high school teacher accidentally fired an unauthorized gun during a public safety lesson at a school in California, according to local reports. (Photo: KSBW/screenshot)

Bolstering recent warnings about the dangers of giving guns to teachers—a proposal touted by the gun lobby as well as President Donald Trump and other Republicans following the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida last month—a high school teacher and reserve cop in California accidentally fired a weapon in his classroom this week, injuring three students, according to local reports.

"This was an incident with a trained professional. If [a gun] is given to everybody, a teacher at the school... this could happen again and again, and it could be a lot worse."—father of injured student

Police officers were called to Seaside High School on Tuesday after Dennis Alexander—a teacher and reserve officer for Sand City, California—"accidentally discharged a firearm" while "providing instruction related to public safety awareness," the Seaside Police Department said in a statement.

Weighing in on the national debate about arming teachers as a safety measure, Fermin Gonzales III, the parent of an injured student, told local broadcaster KSBW: "This was an incident with a trained professional. If it is given to everybody, a teacher at the school... this could happen again and again, and it could be a lot worse."

Others, including Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), echoed the father's warnings as the story started to make national headlines:

So a teacher, who is a reserved police officer, accidentally fired a gun and injured a student. If this incident doesn’t end any further insanity about arming teachers, I don’t know what will. @SteveKerrhttps://t.co/3uLNkmjbWO

I wish that this would end of any talk of arming teachers. One accidentally fired a round in a California classroom, and bullet fragments hit a kid in the neck. The teacher is a reserve police officer. So he has some training. Enough of this insane idea. https://t.co/gGQ4FjkpqK

The local police chief told the Monterey County Weekly that one "male student was struck in the neck by 'debris or fragmentation' from something overhead, and was transported to the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula for treatment," and emphasized that "it was not a bullet, and was 'not life threatening.'"

However, KSBWreported that three students were injured, including 17-year-old Fermin Gonzales IV, who "suffered moderate injuries when fragments from the bullet ricocheted off the ceiling and lodged into his neck."

"The 17-year-old boy's parents were shocked when he returned home with blood on his shirt and bullet fragments in his neck," KSBW added, citing the boy's father, Gonzales III. "The student's parents rushed him to a hospital for X-rays."

"He's shaken up, but he's going to be OK," the father said of his injured son. "I'm just pretty upset that no one told us anything and we had to call the police ourselves to report it."

The school district's superintendent, PK Diffenbaugh, acknowledged in an interview with the Monterey County Weekly that it is a violation of school district board policy and state law for anyone to carry a firearm on school property without advance authorization, and that Alexander had not received such permission.

A letter sent home to parents, according to local reports, says the teacher—who was not named in the letter—has been placed on administrative leave while the school's human resources department, administration, and local police continue to investigate the incident.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

FRIENDS: Help Us Fight

Independent journalism has become the last firewall against government and corporate lies. Yet, with frightening regularity, independent media sources are losing funding, closing down or being blacked out by Google and Facebook. Never before has independent media been more endangered. If you believe in Common Dreams, if you believe in people-powered independent media, please support us now and help us fight—with truths—against the lies that would smother our democracy. Please help keep Common Dreams alive and growing. Thank you. -- Craig Brown, Co-founder

Order stickers here...

Further

While waiting alongside other administration officials and lawmakers before a scheduled event at the White House on Thursday morning, a live video stream captured what appeared to be billionaire capitalist and U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross scraping something from the corner of his eye and then putting it in his mouth. Seemed like an eye booger, but impossible to know for sure. Pretty sure U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross just ate an eye booger on national television. No big deal, but...

Common Dreams brings you the news that matters.

Sign up for Newsletter

Connect With Us

Support Our Spring Fundraising Drive

Can We Count on Your Help Today?

Common Dreams is a small nonprofit with a big mission. Every day of the week, we publish the most important breaking news & views for the progressive community. To remain an independent news source, we do not advertise, sell subscriptions or accept corporate contributions. Instead, we rely on readers like you, to provide the "people power" that fuels our work. Please help keep Common Dreams alive by making a contribution to our Spring fundraising drive. Thank you. - Craig Brown, Co-founder